I'm sure a lot of you are very confused by Rich's decision to end Gone Gold. However, what no one has mentioned yet, is that I believe Gone Gold had at some point been a "registered trademark of Rich Laporte". Regardless if someone took over, his name would always be tied to the site in some form or another. To most people, a transfer of power/rights to another would seem easy... but if you're not working and have health issues it's not.

As another person with neverending (and very severe) health problems, I've been in the same boat too. Though you may have shrunk away from something that you created and supported - even if you give it up to a 3rd party 100%, there's still that nagging feeling of guilt. And for someone that's sick - something that silly can weigh you down; and a small weight becomes huge when you're sick. As long as Gonegold survived - EVEN if he didn't own it, that guilt would remain. He could have read the forums once a month, and that one post of "where's Rich?", would deepen/continue that guilt.

So all I'm trying to point out, is though it may make little sense to kill something as valuable as a thriving virtual neighborhood - sometimes that's the only way to make a clean break. I don't like the decision, but I might have done the same thing. Sometimes that's the only way to get on with your life emotionally.

I'm sure a lot of you are very confused by Rich's decision to end Gone Gold.

I guess I'm just a little surprised by the lack of warning of it all. Rich seems/seemed like the kind of guy that would say "Hey, I've come to this point where I want to shut the doors; I'm doing it in one week" and give all the participants a chance for an organized move elsewhere.

I don't hold anything against him (if in fact he shut things down... I guess I haven't heard anything definitive one way or the other) -- it's his site to do with as he wishes. The way it happened does bum me out, though, just because of the scattering of the masses, so to speak.

Still, as a thriving community it would have been better to make an announcement so that all could relocate together. As it stands now alot of people, members of this community have no idea if the community still exists or has just died.

Knowing the kind of guy Rich is, this could not have been his decision.

Fortunatley I was able to locate where a lot of the GG'ers went, but there are still a huge number AWOL.

Hopefully everyone will know someone who knows where all the GGers went, and the community can be rebuilt here, at least for now.

No matter how you slice it, Rich had an obligation to at least inform the people who were giving of their time freely to moderate and administer the site. Many have excused how they were treated, perhaps rightly so. But let's be clear: there is no justification for how they were treated.

So let's not cast brickbats at Rich, but let's be honest with ourselves about how things ended. Rich has a lot of good will put away in the bank, a slight withdrawal for how things ended isn't going to make a difference in the long run.

Being around GG from the beginning, and knowing Rich personally, I am sad to see his experiment come to an end. It was an interesting evolution, and in many ways for the worse these past few years.

As for any obligations Rich might have had, I think that's bunk. The key phrase here is those people volunteered to do what they did because they wanted to be associated with the site. They chose to do what they did. Rich was under no obligation to do anything for those people, though it certainly would have been a courtesy to give them advanced warning.

Rich put more time, money, and effort into making Gone Gold what it was, and any "obligations" he had to anyone associated with the site, particularly the users, was paid back in full and then some.

Poleaxe says there is "no justification for how rich handled it." Rich didn't need any justification, it was his site to do with as he pleases, were just along for the ride, and some were lucky enough to drive occassionally.

BTW - This post isn't meant to be confrontational or single out Poleaxe.

I agree with the comments above that an action of simple courtesy should've been made in announcing the end of the site to the community. I'm sorry that Rich's issues may have escalated to the extent that he had to pull the plug on the site. But some forewarning was necessary. :?

Poleaxe says there is "no justification for how rich handled it." Rich didn't need any justification, it was his site to do with as he pleases, were just along for the ride, and some were lucky enough to drive occassionally.

Eh.... nobody's argued that Rich wouldn't have a legal right to do whatever he wanted. It's his playground; he can kick us all out.

But there's a line somewhere being exercising legal rights and DOING what is right. [I think society in the U.S. has largely forgotten that and instead adopted the notion that anything legal is also ethical, but that's a different thread, I guess.]

I think the least the community of people that gathered at GG deserved was a one-line warning: "This site will be closing in X days." It's not that hard. Shoot, we wouldn't have even needed an explanation.

Rich was all about respect. He preached it time and time again. But then his final act to the community he created was to slam the door with no warning? It doesn't add up, to me.

Wasn't aware of that, Thanks for the link. The verse I used I saw on a greeting card, and I didn't think much about it. :oops:

I won't use it again, now that I know. I didn't mean it in a mean or vindictive way, just picking on jpinard for talking to himself

I know you didn't mean anything by it, sorry if i sounded like an ass with my post

I really do wonder how schizophrenia came to be associated with Multiple Personality Disorder, though.

Prolly because some schitzos hear voices/ and or talk to themselves. It's easy to assume they have another personality at work. Whats that? No, I wont. You shut up already! --glances over shoulder shaking fist wildly.

Running under the assumption that there aren't any issues (health, emotional, etc) that would prevent this, I think simple courtesy goes a long way.

Which is what I stated. Courtesy is not synonymous with obligation. Yeah , it would have been nice. It's trivial that he didn't (as Poleaxe pretty much implied)

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But some forewarning was necessary.

Necessary to whom or to what?

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But there's a line somewhere being exercising legal rights and DOING what is right.

Legality and ethics is are non-sequiturs and as for doing what is right, Rich did was is right for him. Considering the other priorities in his life, that is exactly the right call.

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I think the least the community of people that gathered at GG deserved was a one-line warning: "This site will be closing in X days." It's not that hard. Shoot, we wouldn't have even needed an explanation.

What exactly, with the exception of the moderators and administrators, did anyone do to deserve anything when it comes to Gone Gold?

What exactly, with the exception of the moderators and administrators, did anyone do to deserve anything when it comes to Gone Gold?

Eh? Look, it's obvious you and I won't agree on this, so I'm not sure what the big deal is....

My take is this: When I invite people into my home, I have the *right* to boot them out abruptly. But courtesy, tactfulness, and an appreciation for treating other people well means that if I want them to leave I'll ask politely. Or I'll note that it's getting late. Or whatever. I won't simply stand up, point at the door, and say "Leave now."

That seems to me sorta like what Rich did. He invited people into his community, and then abruptly shut the door. The simple fact that so many people feel agitated about it is evidence enough that it was an unsettling way to finish things.

*shrug* I think he could have done it better, that's all; and without a whole lot of effort.

You're right in calling me on the word 'deserved'. We didn't "deserve" anything in any legal sense at all (I didn't mean to imply we did, but obviously 'deserved' was a poor choice of words.). But I think as fellow human beings who invested our time in building the community and participating in it, simple compassion would have dictated being a bit more gentle in closing the doors.

What exactly, with the exception of the moderators and administrators, did anyone do to deserve anything when it comes to Gone Gold?

It's just common courtesy to let a sizeable community know a site is being shut down.

I posted on GoneGold for three and a half years. I like to think that I invested something of myself in the community in those years. Many others posted for longer. There were contributions made to the site, cards sent, people that met through the site, get-togethers, etc. We, at the least, deserved some sort of closure. As it was posted earlier, a brief note stating 'Sorry but this site will be shutdown in X days' would have been enough.

I very much appreciate Rich and what he accomplished with the site. I suspect that he has to be in some dire straits, mental or physical, for the site to have been shutdown the way it was.

I see your point that it's ultimately his right to shutdown the site. That's fine. But I've participated in some sites before GoneGold that were shutdown and in all cases an announcement was made that the sites were going to be shutdown. I'm just miffed that GoneGold, which had one of the most tight-knit, warm, thoughtful communities on the net was just shutdown the way it was. Rich must've known how uprooted we would feel. :?

The longer this debate goes on, the more convinced I am that Rich did the right thing in not giving adance notice. Here it is, a week after the plug was pulled, and this forum is still being flooded with woulda-coulda-shoulda posts.

Obviously Rich prefers to have no communication with the community, probably due to emotional baggage associated with the site. If there had been notice, how many emails/phone calls/letters/telegrams/carrier pigeons would he have gotten begging him to either a)keep the site open or b)hand it over to someone else. Hundreds? Thousands?

The last thing he probably needed or wanted was badgering about what to do with his baby. For the sake of his own peace of mind, I think he did the right thing.

I don't think many people would have disputed Rich's right to shut the site down. If anything, many people would have wished him well and would want him to do what's best for himself. That says alot about the community of GGers that Rich helped attract and the staff as well.

The only woulda, coulda, shoulda that I find is going on is that people would have wanted a short bit of forewarning if it was possible in order to make their own plans and set up something for the refugees that were to be created. As it stands, kudos to the Console Gold folks for adapting so quickly and kudos to the Brutesquad forum for getting up and running so quickly.

Whatever. I don't feel like being a target or be told I'm whining over this. I'm sure this discussion would be easier face to face so there's no misunderstandings.

Logged

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Honestly, there were a lot of threads that contained things personal to me that I would've liked to have saved before the shutdown. Mostly my threads where I whined about my relationship, but also pictures, funny stuff, a whole lot of things like that. Just last night I wanted to look up something about Trent Steel's circuit to make sure I was doing it right, but oops, fuggedaboutit!

It's basically like a friend slammed the door in our faces, and I don't see that it's unexpected or inappropriate that people should be a bit displeased and upset about it. Nothing we can do, but venting is perfectly fine.

I didn't mean to make you a target, and I don't think I ever used the word whining. Nothing I said was directed at you personally. The woulda-coulda-shoulda comment was not even about this particularly thread, but ALL the "wtf?" threads here and on other boards.

While old-timers might have respected Rich's decision to just shut 'er down, and left the guy in peace, we both know that towards the end, GG attracted SOME (not all) new members who lacked maturity - certainly the maturity to accept Rich's wishes.

It's the loss of the forum content itself that I'm irritated about. Aside from Stephen's not-so-recent backup that's a whole knowledgebase about all sort of stuff that's essentially lost (even if temporarily, if someone can ressurrect the forum in a read-only fashion). I've just finished Buffy and was looking forward to going back and reading all the posts from 2002/2003 about each week's episode. Granted, it's a trivial matter, but if I'd known the site was going down I would have archived those posts myself.

No knowledge has been lost, not really. The knowledge is still in the heads of the forum members that originally posted it, or elsewhre on-line (want to know about the episodes of Buffy? I'm sure there are other forums discussing it). What was lost was the CONVENIENCE of having everything in one place. If the NYC library closed tomorrow, would the great literature of the world be lost? No, because it is availabe elsewhere. You just have to look harder for it.

I didn't mean to make you a target, and I don't think I ever used the word whining. Nothing I said was directed at you personally. The woulda-coulda-shoulda comment was not even about this particularly thread, but ALL the "wtf?" threads here and on other boards.

I know Harvey. Alot of folks are venting over the sudden loss of what was a "virtual" home for many of us. Also, alot of people are probably worried about Rich himself due to the abruptness of it all. As I said, all this would probably be better face to face. At least there's less of a chance for misunderstandings and at the very least we'd have beer...until we all had too much to drink then we'd get ultra sensitive and start throwing chairs around and after we got kicked out we'd all probably have some drunken group hug before passing out in a big GG pool of vomit.

Logged

Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill. Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents and be happy.

Let us be thankful we have commerce. Buy more. Buy more now. Buy. And be happy.

I am glad I found out what happened to GG (kind of) and where everyone went. I only found my way here because of a post on Rpgdot otherwise I would be still be wondering what the hell happened. I do not own a console and am not interested in getting one so where are the rest of y'all going for your PC news and chat? I see they have a section here for it but is the pc crowd from GG going to stick around to use it? I am feeling a bit lost now and am looking for a new home.

I agreed with what people said here...but just shutting it down with no warning really stinks, period. I really liked the environment and community on GG. But the lack of updates on the other pages, and the general malaise of the site just did it in, IMHO.

I've been toying with resurrecting the site (as gonegold.net or pcgonegold.com) and retooling it, with frequent game updates of games going Gold, frequent column updates (by both myself and other game industry people I know), a full forum, and (most importantly) more open and consistent communication with members, and some other stuff (to differentiate it from the gonegold.com site). Not sure if it would be worth doing or not, but i'd love to maybe try at some point.

I didn't mean to make you a target, and I don't think I ever used the word whining. Nothing I said was directed at you personally. The woulda-coulda-shoulda comment was not even about this particularly thread, but ALL the "wtf?" threads here and on other boards.

I know Harvey. Alot of folks are venting over the sudden loss of what was a "virtual" home for many of us. Also, alot of people are probably worried about Rich himself due to the abruptness of it all. As I said, all this would probably be better face to face. At least there's less of a chance for misunderstandings and at the very least we'd have beer...until we all had too much to drink then we'd get ultra sensitive and start throwing chairs around and after we got kicked out we'd all probably have some drunken group hug before passing out in a big GG pool of vomit.

Obviously Rich prefers to have no communication with the community, probably due to emotional baggage associated with the site. If there had been notice, how many emails/phone calls/letters/telegrams/carrier pigeons would he have gotten begging him to either a)keep the site open or b)hand it over to someone else. Hundreds? Thousands?

The last thing he probably needed or wanted was badgering about what to do with his baby. For the sake of his own peace of mind, I think he did the right thing.

Harvey - that's exactly what I thought. BUT, what I didn't think about, and probably Rich did not either, was some of the really personal stuff that some would have wanted copied that meant a great deal to them. It's easy to forget GG was not just a place of whiners and silly newpostings - but a place where people got real help, good advice (sometimes), and valuable friendship/companionship.